Daily Stock Report: Market Makes Slim Gains of 54 Points

At the beginning of the week, benchmark index closed flat with a slight gain of +54.86 points or +0.14% to close at 39,525.75 points.

A correction was seen during the day as the rollover week began on Tuesday after the long weekend, as a relative calm in the country’s political landscape last week helped improve investor sentiment.

Moreover, the market may also continue to take its cue from fund managers’ year-end window dressing ahead of the New Year.

The market opened in the positive zone while touching an intraday high of +249 points in the opening hours but till the midday all the gain was wiped off and the market went down in the negative zone. Some correction was seen today as it touched the intraday low of -177 points but made a recovery and managed to close in the positive zone.

The apex regulator’s initiative of increasing the number of companies eligible for the margin trading system with the introduction of category B, changes in the Risk Management regime of Deliverable Future Contract and introduction of Category B for selection of Securities eligible for trading in Margin Trading System was the main highlight.

According to latest data, about 28 – 30 companies are to be added to the eligibility list. The Stocks are likely to start on Futures Counter in February which is a positive change.

Oil stocks also gained up as well as the cement sector that had been under pressure in the recently past has posted a strong run today as investors cheered.

It has been informed by PSX that it is recomposing the KSE-30 Index for the review period from 1st January, 2017 to 30th June, 2017. The Re-Composition has been carried out on the basis of the Pre-requisites / Criteria of selection of companies.

The four new constituents of KMI-30 are International Steels, Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd Kot Addu Power Company Ltd, Attock Petroleum, International Industries and Treet Corporation Limited.

All shares index had a traded volume of 178.17 million shares today. Overall, stocks of 347 companies were traded on the exchange, of which 181 gained in value, 150 declined and 16 remained unchanged.

In KSE 100, the volumes got better as 89.19 million shares were traded with a net worth of just Rs. 6.08 billion.

Top traded sectors:

Lotte Chemical was the volume 17.43 million shares, gaining Rs. 0.63 to close at Rs. 7.37. It was followed by TRG Pak Ltd with 14.85 million shares, gaining Rs. 0.58 to close at Rs. 29.75, Fauji Cement with 14.62 million shares, gaining Rs. 1.12 to close at Rs. 23.68 and Pak Electron with 7.87 million gaining Rs. 2.37 to close at Rs. 49.86.